


Up to her chest and hugged it lightly

by Natalia_lives



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-Episode: s04e22 These Are The Voyages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28913277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Natalia_lives/pseuds/Natalia_lives
Summary: Malcolm knew more than he showed and he also valued privacy as much as T'Pol. Theirs was a silent friendship.
Relationships: Malcolm Reed & T'Pol, T'Pol/Charles "Trip" Tucker III
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	Up to her chest and hugged it lightly

The death of Trip shook the whole ship to its core. On their way back to Earth the usually lively crew was wrapped in mournful silence. Captain Archer spent his time in his office, not really communicating with anyone. Trip was more than just a friend to him. He let T’Pol take care of the Bridge.   
T’Pol observed the crew around her in her usual seemingly passive way. The engineering team pretended like Trip was only briefly away. Hoshi avoided mentioning him in conversations. Phlox, who T’Pol guessed was also observing the ‘humans’, babbled in his understandingly cheerful way about Denubilan mourning practices. Travis was planning a memorial movie night, watching some classical horror movies. Reed stayed the same, short nods, economic moves, vigilant as ever. After spending so much time among humans, T’Pol come to value their ways, emotions, complexity. She saw the beauty in them.

T’Pol blew out the meditational candles and rearranged the pillows back to their usual ways. Her door chimed. It was Lt. Reed. After her nod, he stepped in lightly. He stopped by the far end of the bed, she observed him for a few seconds. He looked different, he was more Malcolm than Lt. Reed. She come to know the difference, back during their days at the Expanse. His black undershirt was a few button down, the blue overall zipped down further than the regulation dictates. Gone was the calm, observing smile, instead his eyes were tired and sad.   
“What can I do for you?” She was genuinely interested.  
Malcolm looked at her with a telling smile.   
“I know, that Trip and you were close” As ever, T’Pol slowly raised one of her eyebrows. Malcolm continued slowly. “I took the liberty to dig up his personal logs, especially those regarding you.” She watched him intensively. “I know you value your privacy and things between the two of you, were complicated, so to say.” He took out a padd from his pocket. “I copied everything here and deleted from his files. I make it look like he did it, naturally a deep search would show it, but that’s not likely to happen.” She slowly took the padd. T’Pol was aware how the two men were close and she suspected that Malcolm knew more than he showed.   
“Thank you.” Her voice was warm and she even smiled a bit. At least what classifies as a smile from her.   
Malcolm nodded. He didn’t have anything else to say and they both valued efficiency above social niceties. “Good night Commander.” And he turned toward the door. He was halfway out when she stepped after him.  
“Malcolm,” She rarely called him that. “Why did you do it?” He turned back smilingly. “Because I could.” He winked then left.   
She stood at the middle of her room for a while, lost in her thoughts. Finally, slowly she brought the padd up to her chest and hugged it lightly.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
